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HOW ISSN: 0120-5927 [email protected] Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés Colombia Ballesteros Muñoz, Liliana; Tutistar Jojoa, Silvana How Setting Goals Enhances Learners’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Listening Comprehension HOW, vol. 21, núm. 1, abril-septiembre, 2014, pp. 42-61 Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés Bogotá, Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=499450631004 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative How Setting Goals Enhances Learners’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Listening Comprehension Cómo el diseño de metas promueve las creencias de auto-eficacia en la comprensión auditiva* Liliana Ballesteros Muñoz [email protected] IED Ciudadela Educativa de Bosa, Colombia Silvana Tutistar Jojoa [email protected] IED Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Colombia This article outlines a study that explores the relationship between SMART goal setting (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based) and learning English in Colombia concerning a foreign language learners’ self-efficacy beliefs in listening. The participants were seventh and ninth grade students of two schools in Bogotá, Colombia. The results revealed that self-efficacy was highly positive when related to goal setting as students were able to set SMART goals to improve their listening comprehension and learners showed improvement in self-efficacy beliefs and felt more motivated while completing listening tasks related to songs. Furthermore this study shows that goal setting training can be incorporated successfully into the English as a foreign language classroom. Key words: Goal setting, listening, metacognition, self-efficacy Este artículo expone un estudio que explora la relación entre el diseño de metas (específicas, medi- bles, alcanzables, relevantes, con límite de tiempo: SMART goals) y las creencias de autoeficacia en com- prensión oral de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera en Colombia. Los participantes fueron estudiantes de grado séptimo y noveno de dos colegios en Bogotá. Los resultados revelaron que la au- toeficacia está altamente relacionada con el diseño de metas, ya que los estudiantes fueron capaces de es- tablecer metas SMART para mejorar su comprensión auditiva. También reportaron una mejora en sus creencias de autoeficacia al realizar actividades de escucha relacionadas con canciones y se sintieron tam- bién más motivados. Además, este estudio muestra que la instrucción sobre diseño de metas pude ser in- corporado exitosamente en clases de inglés como lengua extranjera. Palabras clave: autoeficacia, comprensión auditiva, diseño de metas, metacognición * Received: October 30, 2013. Accepted: February 3, 2014. 42 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English How Setting Goals Enhances Learners’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Listening Comprehension Introduction Since listening is one of the most important skills when learning a language, it is essential to look for strategies to implement in the classroom that will allow students to overcome difficulties associated with a listening task. Providing students with strategies instruction has proven to be a useful tool to enhance listening comprehension (Vandergrift, 1999; Rubin, 1994). By engaging students in the use of strategies, the present study draws from goal setting—a planning metacognitive strategy—and self-efficacy—a motivational measure—as two outstanding theories which underlie this investigation. Locke and Latham (1990) provided a goal-setting theory of motivation which has been relevant to researchers involved in this field. This theory emphasizes the important relationship between goals and performance. They found there was a close relationship between a learner’s performance of a task and the difficulty and specificity of a goal, that is, when a learner sets hard and specific goals there is more motivation to achieve them. Bandura (1997) stated that self-efficacy determined how people feel, think, motivate, and behave. A person with strong self-efficacy beliefs sets challenging goals and maintains a commitment to them. This author also provided evidence about the considerable influence of self-efficacy beliefs in learning processes, since they represent a cognitive mechanism that mediates between knowledge and action and determines the success of one’s actions in the attainment of personal goals. Consequently, the aim of this study is to determine the effect of SMART goal setting on learners’ self-efficacy beliefs in listening. It also advocates for an innovative integration of setting SMART goals into the school curriculum and classroom activities. Going Deeper Into SMART Goal Setting and Self-Efficacy Goal Setting “Metacognition combines a variety of thinking and reflective processes. It can be divided into five elements: (1) preparing and planning for learning, (2) selecting and using learning strategies, (3) monitoring strategy use, (4) orchestrating various strategies, and (5) evaluating strategy use and learning” (Anderson, 2002, p. 2). Preparation and planning are important metacognitive skills that can improve students’ learning; learners can reflect on the particular learning goals they might set for a task and measure their progress based on their goals. Locke and Latham (1990) have proposed a partial model of task motivation, the basic premise being that an individual’s conscious intentions or goals are the primary determinants of task motivation. Further, their theory suggests that hard goals result in greater effort than HOW Vol. 21, No. 1, April 2014, ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages: 42-61 43 Liliana Ballesteros Muñoz and Silvana Tutistar Jojoa easy goals and that specific goals result in higher effort than no goals or more generalized goals. According to Locke and Latham (1990), goal setting and performance have a close relationship; a goal should be measurable as to what the person has to do in order to achieve that specific goal. And ambiguous or too easy goals may not produce the individual’s desired level of performance. Goal setting theory postulates that goals affect performance through four mechanisms: direction, effort, persistence, and strategy development (Locke & Latham, 2002). Direction refers to how learners focus their attention and effort toward goal relevant activities and avoid irrelevant activities. This happens in both aspects: cognitive and behavioral. Effort is related to high goals since they lead to greater resolution even more than low goals. Since different goals may require different amounts of effort, effort is mobilized simultaneously in direct proportion to the perceived requirements of the task. Persistence is a directed effort extended over time; so, it is a combination of the previous mechanisms: direction and effort. Finally, Early and Perry (as cited in Locke & Latham, 2002, p. 707) assert “when people are trained in the proper strategies, those given specific high-performance goals are more likely to use those strategies than people given other types of goals; hence, their performance improves.” Locke and Latham (2002) outline five characteristics of successful goal setting: 1. Clarity: Clear goals are measurable and unambiguous. When a goal is clear and specific, with a definite time set for completion, there is less misunderstanding about what behaviors will be rewarded. 2. Challenge: One of the most important characteristics of goals is the level of challenge. People are often motivated by achievement, and they will judge a goal based on the level of significance of the anticipated accomplishment. 3. Commitment: Goal commitment and difficulty often work together. The harder the goal, the more commitment is required. 4. Feedback: In addition to selecting the right type of goal, an effective goal program must also include teacher and peer feedback. It provides opportunities to clarify expectations, adjust goal difficulty, and gain recognition. 5. Task Complexity: People who work in complicated and demanding roles probably have a high level of motivation already. (p. 715) According to Locke (as cited in Griffee & Templin, 1997), task complexity is another important characteristic which can moderate the effects of goals. If the task becomes too overwhelming for learners, there are chances that they can feel a little demoralized. When this happens, learners may feel frustrated and may not want to attain the goal. If difficult goals appear, there is a need to set several smaller goals. So, it promotes pupils’ progress feedback. 44 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English How Setting Goals Enhances Learners’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Listening Comprehension Self-Efficacy Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p. 3). The concept of self-efficacy arose from Bandura’s social cognitive theory in 1977. According to Bandura’s theory, human behavior, environment, and personal factors interact and influence each other through the process of reciprocal determinism. For example, a person’s self-efficacy (personal factor) can be an indicator of how a person self-regulates their performance (behavior), and their performance can affect their future self-efficacy beliefs in turn (Bandura, 1997). The most important characteristic